The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica

Cycle of Fire

by Stephen J. Pyne

Stephen Pyne's overwhelming fascination with Antarctica is the compelling force behind this major book on this stark and largely unknown continent. It combines a geophysical examination of the ice with an inspirational survey of how one of the most alien landscapes of our planet has shaped and affected man's life on earth throughout the centuries. The sheer immensity of the ice sheet is staggering. Its weight is sufficient to deform the globe. Interleaved with each scientific examination are historical surveys dealing with man's assimilation of Antarctica. Pyne reveals how Cook's voyages to Antarctica not only affected the history of science, but inspired such works as MOBY DICK and THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Science, Travel, History

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As soon as the reader opens this book, he or she is pummelled into the freezing ice. The frozen continent of Antarctica, made up of ice bergs,tabular bergs,glacier bergs,ice islands,bergy bits,growlers,brash ice,white ice,blue ice,green ice,dirty ice,the sea ice,pack ice,ice flows,ice rinds,ice hummocks,ice ridges,ice flowers,ice stalectites,pancake ice,frazil ice,grease ice,congelation ice,infiltration ice,undersea ice,vuggy ice,new ice,old ice,brown ice,rotten ice,the coastal ices,fast ice,shore ice,glacial-ice tongues,ice piedmonts,ice fringes,ice cakes,ice foots,ice fronts,ice walls,floating ice,grounded ice,anchor ice,rime ice,ice ports,ice shelves,ice rises,ice bastionsice haycocks,ice lobes,ice streams,the mountain ices,glacial ice,valley glaciers,cirque glaciers,piedmont glaciers,ice fjords,ice layers,ice pipes,ice falls,ice folds,ice faults,ice pinnacles,ice lenses,ice aprons,ice falls,ice fronts,ice slush,the ground ices,ice wedges,ice veins,permafrost,the polar plateau ices,ice sheets,ice caps,ice domes,ice streams,ice divides,ice saddles,ice rumples,the atmospheric ices,ice grains,ice crystals,ice dust,pencil ice,plate ice,bullet ice,the ice field! Man, that's just the prologue.
Stephen J.Pyne's 'The Ice', published 1986 is a four hundred page monster, and if you can lash up the dog team and mush through the barrier, this book offers a fantastic journey into everything you could wish to learn of the southern continent from Gondwanaland to World Park. From it's geological history, it's history of discovery and exploration, to it's art, politics, weather systems, science, biodiversity and more ice.
Pyne writes with such authority on so many subjects here, a very rich book indeed. I'll always stop and think in future whenever I order my Scotch on the rocks.
I did discover one incey wincey error on p77 with reference to a Cpt John Briscoe. The name should be Biscoe. I know this because the RSS John Biscoe was a British Antarctic Survey vessel which I was on in 1977.

[Heidi Bakk-Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustive tome that eloquently tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Antarctica, but didn't know enough to ask. I hope every base on the Ice has a copy, because an Antarctic winter-over is probably the best way to get through this book with more alacrity than I managed. Great book. But really, it was a LOT.

[Jim]

I couldn't finish this book. You think you know ice? You don't know ice. You'll learn more than you probably ever wanted to know about ice if you read this book. I advise you to have a good science dictionary handy while you're reading it. "Fire on the Rim" was very readable. This book isn't.

[Ian Lea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some of the people who reviewed and recommended this must have liked it, but I can't cope. Too weird and metaphysical and wordy.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

If something could be said with 100 words, 1000 words doesn’t necessarily make it better